.@SJUHawks_WLAX tops @TempleLacrosse for first time since 2009

Senior attacker Francesca Donato (Neshaminy) scored a game-high seven goals and dished out a game-high four assists and junior midfielder Rebecca Lane added five goals and four helpers of her own to lead the Saint Joseph’s women’s lacrosse squad to an 18-11 road win over host Temple at Howarth Field on Wednesday afternoon.

With their first road win of the season, the Hawks improve to 2-1 overall while the Owls fall to 2-2.

The win marks the program’s first over Temple since 2009 and the first road win over Temple in program history.

“Our team really stepped up against a talented Temple team today,” said head coach Alex Kahoe (Agnes Irwin) following the win, SJU’s second in five days. “As a whole, we played great St. Joe’s lacrosse today with our high-producing attack, led by Fran [Donato] and Bec [Lane], and a strong defensive effort led by the solid play of Bridget Cerciello (Southern Lehigh).”

Leading by just one, 4-3, after Temple converted its third free position shot in the first nine minutes of play, Saint Joseph’s scored three times in 32 seconds to break open the scoring and to take a four-goal advantage, 7-3, by the 19:07 mark of the first half.

Junior midfielder Hayley Sabol (19:39), assisted by Donato, started the run with her ninth goal of the season. Senior midfielder Kate Payne (Archmere-DE) then won the ensuing draw control and assisted on sophomore midfielder Penny Green’s score (19:19) before freshman midfielder Taylor Newman-Farr converted on an EMO on a dish from Donato at the 19:07 mark.

Temple scored the next two goals of the game to inch back to within three goals, but Lane found junior midfielder Sinead Brierley with 29 ticks left on the scoreboard, and Brierley put away her first of the season to give the Hawks a four-goal lead entering the halftime break.

Following back-to-back SJU goals from Donato (26:16) and Newman-Farr (24:44) to open the second half, the Owls went on a four-goal run, all on free position opportunities, to close their deficit to two, 11-9, at the 19:11 mark.

From that point, the spotlight was on Donato.

SJU scored the next five goals of the game, with Donato scoring four during the run (18:12, 11:44, 10:56, 7:59), to give the Hawks their biggest lead of the day, a seven-goal advantage at 16-9.

The Owls scored just 11 seconds after Donato’s unassisted score at the 7:59 mark, but the junior found Lane with 6:37 to play to push SJU’s lead back out by seven.

Temple’s Nicole Barretta (Downingtown East) scored her first and only goal of the day with 4:54 to play, but Donato closed out her career-caliber day with her seventh goal of the game with 3:36 remaining on the scoreboard, assisted by Lane, to give the Hawks their 18th and final goal of the afternoon.

In her first collegiate start, sophomore midfielder Cerciello was tasked with defending Barretta, Temple’s leading scorer (12g, 5a) entering the afternoon. Cerciello held Barretta to just one goal on three shots for the game in a tremendous defensive effort.

Graduate student goalkeeper Liz O’Sullivan (2-1) also turned in a strong performance, making nine saves in net – six in the first half and four in the second half – in 58:22. For the second game in a row, freshman goalkeeper Corinne Buttner saw time between the pipes and made a save in the final 1:38.

For the game, Saint Joseph’s owned a 39-31 advantage in shots and a 25-23 edge in ground balls and won 17 of the game’s 31 draw controls. Sophomore midfielder Julia Pash (5) and Payne (3) were once again dominant from the circle, combining for just shy of half of SJU’s possessions at the draw.

Alongside Cerciello and O’Sullivan, senior defender Kristen Kelbon (Bishop Eustace-NJ) anchored the Hawks on the defensive end of the field, going for a single-game, career-high six ground balls as well as two caused turnovers in the victory.

Seven of Temple’s 11 goals came on free position shots as the Owls shot 50 percent from the eight meter (7-of-14); the Hawks were held to 0-4 from the hashes.

Sophomore Olivia Thompson led Temple with four points, adding an assist to three goals. She scored all three on free-position chances, going 3-for-5. Also recording a hat trick was sophomore Maddie Gebert (Owen J. Roberts), who got two of her goals on three free-position attempts. Gebert also tallied three caused turnovers and three ground balls.

Penn State 19, Duquesne 8

Freshman Sophia Triandafils scored a career-high four goals to help lead No. 12 Penn State past Duquesne in non-conference action from the newly minted Panzer Stadium.

Sophomore Katie Schluederberg added a career-high six points on a pair of goals and four assists to lead all scorers while seniors Katie O’Donnell (Henderson) and Maggie Gallagher and sophomores Kristin Roberto, Maria Auth and Shannon Moore (West Chester East) each added multi-goal efforts for the hosts.